i really wish that the building material cards in settlers of catan did the normal-playing-card-thing and had some sort of symbol or even just the words "WHEAT" or "ORE" or whatever written in the upper-left hand corner of the card. half of the issue i had in trying to strategize or even figure out what the hell i could build had to do with not being able to easily recognize what my cards were and/or having to fan out the cards in such a wide way so i could see what the symbol at the center of the card was. it certainly doesn't help that the background color for sheep and wood are very similar.

there should also be an easy way to keep track of score so people don't have to keep recounting their settlements and cities and victory points over and over again. maybe if all of the pieces had an unique magnetic frequency when attached to the board, the board could send out its own radio frequency that would light up flashing lights for every point you receive, and then when you win the game, miniature fireworks come out and explode while the game board plays a recording of "danny boy".